Apple is planning to resume the production of 2017’s flagship model, the iPhone X, reports The Wall Street Journal. The company had stopped making X when this year’s models were launched. The reason for bringing the older model back is the less than warm response iPhone XS and XS Max evoked in the market. The models are not moving as the company expected, and bringing the popular X is seen as one option to help weather the bad sales season. It is perceived that the major reason for the XS and XS Max models is their high price tags. Even the XR, the comparatively cheaper new model is not selling well, as it is costlier than iPhone 8, and doesn’t have the features offered in the XS.
There is another reason for bringing the iPhone X back. Apple has signed a contract with Samsung to buy a certain number of OLED panels. Apple will be losing a huge sum of money if the terms of the contract are not honored. As the newer models with OLED panels did not pick up the sales pace the company expected, it took the option of going back to last year’s flagship phone. With the launch of XS Apple had withdrawn X from sales. It is not certain whether the company will bring iPhone X back on its website; most likely the device will be pushed to retailers and carriers, as it happened in the case of iPhone 6.
Customarily, Apple is not a company that slashes the price of a product to promote sales in huge volumes. This time it has decided to do that in Japan. WSJ reports that it is planning to offer subsidies for dealers in Japan to promote the sales of the iPhone XR. It is expected that the lowered price tag will attract more Japanese customers to move towards the XR. Now most of the prospective buyers in the Asian country prefer to go for iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Apple’s sales outlook for the last quarter of the year was bleak, and the company is trying out ways in which the slide can be halted.
